A work in four parts

Like Ludwig van Beethoven, Gustav Mahler did not progress beyond his »Ninth«. Although the late Romantic composer began sketching a tenth symphony, he only completed nine contributions to this genre, which since Beethoven has represented the crowning achievement of any composer’s career. In contrast to his role model, Mahler’s oeuvre, especially the earlier symphonies, show clearly defined structures and shared features, while the later opuses pursue ever more individualized paths. In particular, the first four, composed between 1885 and 1900, are such close bedfellows that they can be comprehended as a work in four parts.

When Daniele Gatti decides to programme all of these early symphonies in his first season as Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle, this can be viewed as a signpost: an exemplary demonstration of how, in the late Romantic period, the genre gradually broke free of its traditional forms. One feature that connects this quartet of symphonies is that each one displays a unified tonality: the opening movement and finale are either in the same or closely related keys. Above all, however, each member of the tetralogy either features vocal parts or songs. All four symphonies contain at least one movement based on a setting by Mahler of a poem from the collection »Des Knaben Wunderhorn« published by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano in 1805 or makes use of a text by the composer inspired by these poems. For this reason, the four works became known as the »Wunderhorn Symphonies«.

The programmatic elements of the symphonies also overlap to some degree: An early version of the first symphony, originally announced as a »symphonic poem in two parts«, bore the title »Titan« after Jean Paul’s novel. The second, the »Resurrection Symphony«, can be said to continue this story: It begins with a »Todtenfeier« (Funeral Rites), in which the hero of the first symphony is laid to rest. His life is captured as if in reflection, when the finale asks us: Why did you live? Why did you suffer? The third symphony then shifts the action, gazing down at the world from ever larger perspectives. The massive and deliberately wordless finale of the third symphony reaches the most sublime heights; appropriately, it comes at the end of the opening season of this first Mahler cycle ever to be performed by the Staatskapelle. The fourth symphony then brings the »Wunderhorn« years to a fitting conclusion. In an artistically ironic refraction, the world that the listener has travelled through in these early works is now viewed at a certain distance through a cheerful humoresque.